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Founded by the Łubieński brothers as a textile factory in 1833. One of directors of the factory was French inventor Philippe de Girard (from Lourmarin). The town developed during the 19th century into a significant textilemill town in Poland. In honour of Girard, Ruda Guzowska was renamed Żyrardów, a toponym derived of the polonised spelling of Girard's name.

On September 13, 1939 Germany captured the town. In 1941 they transported Jews into Warsaw ghetto. The town museum is nowadays located in the former palace of owner of factory K. Dittrich.
A sign near the entrance to the town states that it was the only city in Europe, entirely set up for a factory.
The town was named one of Poland's official national Historic Monuments (Pomnik historii), as designated January 17, 2012. Its listing is maintained by the National Heritage Board of Poland.

Most of Żyrardów's monuments are located in the manufacturing area which dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is widely believed that Żyrardów's textile settlement is the only whole urban industrial 19th-century complex to be preserved in Europe.

1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church

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Masovian Voivodeship
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Masovian Voivodeship or Mazovia Province, is the largest and most populous of the sixteen Polish provinces, or voivodeships, created in 1999. It occupies 35,579 square kilometres of east-central Poland, and has 5,324,500 inhabitants. Its principal cities are Warsaw in the centre of the Warsaw metropolitan area, Radom in the south, Płock in the west, Siedlce in the east, the capital of the voivodeship is the national capital, Warsaw. The province was created on January 1,1999, out of the former Warsaw, Płock, Ciechanów, Ostrołęka, Siedlce and Radom Voivodeships, the provinces name recalls the traditional name of the region, Mazowsze, with which it is roughly coterminous. Masovian Voivodeship is divided into 42 counties,5 city counties and 37 land counties and these are subdivided into 314 gminas, which include 85 urban gminas. The counties, shown on the map, are described in the table below. The voivodeship contains 85 cities and towns and these are listed below in descending order of population, Protected areas in Masovian Voivodeship include one National Park and nine Landscape Parks. Together with Płock and Rawa Voivodeships, it formed the province of Masovia, Masovian Voivodeship was one of the voivodeships of Congress Poland. It was formed from Warsaw Department, and transformed into Masovia Governorate, there are three main road routes that pass through the voivodship, Cork–Berlin–Poznań–Warszawa–Minsk–Moscow–Omsk, Prague–Wrocław–Warsaw–Białystok–Helsinki and Pskov–Gdańsk–Warsaw–Kraków–Budapest. Currently there are small stretches of autostrada in the area. However, the A2 autostrada, upon its completion, will be the first autostrada to connect the region, the autostrada will pass directly through the voivodship from east to west connecting it with Belarus and Germany. The railroad system is based on Koleje Mazowieckie and PKP Intercity, the main international airport in the region is Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport. Masovian Voivodeship is the wealthiest province in Poland and it produces 22% of Polish GDP, and GDP per capita is 160% of country average. Second Polish Republics Warsaw Voivodeship Official website Things to do in Warsaw

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Vehicle registration plates of Poland
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Polish vehicle registration plates indicate the region of registration of the vehicle encoded in the number plate. According to Polish law, the plate is tied to the vehicle. There is no possibility for the owner to keep the number for use on a different car. The licence plates are issued by the powiat of the vehicle owners registered address of residence, if it is owned by a legal person, the place of registration is determined by the address of its seat. Vehicles leased under operating leases and many de facto finance leases will be registered at the seat of the lessor, when a vehicle changes hands, the new owner must apply for new vehicle registration document bearing his or her name and registered address. The new owner may obtain a new licence plate although it is not necessary when new owners residence address lies in the area as the previous owners. In such a situation the licence plates are carried over to the new owner. If the car has a pre- May 1,2006 plate, the plaque cannot be replaced if destroyed. The change of the set is required. The change in system shown below in 2001 is related to the reduction in the year of the number of voivodeships in Poland from 49 to 16. The pre-2001 licence plates can be used indefinitely, but since they are obsolete they have to be replaced in case of change of vehicles ownership. In the pre-2001 model, there were not sufficient letters in the Polish alphabet for each of the old voivodeships to have a single letter, only the standard latin alphabet were used, the specific Polish characters with diacritics were excluded in order to make the plates fully internationally readable. Therefore, two letters had to be used to indicate the vehicles origin, since the change, the first letter denotes the new voivodeship. One additional letter is used in cities with rights of powiat, two additional letters are used in any other powiat. It is not necessary for EU citizens to re-register the vehicles they have brought them, which are duly registered and taxed elsewhere in the EU. This emerges from European law, although local regulations have to not been changed to reflect the law. If in doubt, refer to your Embassy, if the vehicle uses only one licence plate the excessive sticker must be attached to the registration papers. Each powiat uses a two or three letter code, with the first letter denoting the powiats voivodeship

4.
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. Once described as Paris of the East, Warsaw was believed to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world until World War II. On 9 November 1939, the city was awarded Polands highest military decoration for heroism, Warsaw is one of Europe’s most dynamic metropolitan cities. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world, in 2017 the city came 4th in the “Business-friendly” category and 8th in the “Human capital and life style”. It was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central, Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, a major international tourist destination and a significant cultural, political and economic hub. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European Union agency for external security, has its headquarters in Warsaw. Together with Frankfurt, London and Paris, Warsaw is also one of the cities with the highest number of skyscrapers in the European Union, the city is the seat of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and the University of Warsaw. The historic city-centre of Warsaw with its picturesque Old Town in 1980 was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, buildings represent examples of nearly every European architectural style and historical period. Warsaw provides many examples of architecture from the gothic, renaissance, baroque, neoclassical and modern periods, furthermore, the city is positioning itself as Europes chic cultural capital with thriving art and club scenes and renowned restaurants. Folk etymology attributes the city name to a fisherman, Wars, according to legend, Sawa was a mermaid living in the Vistula River with whom Wars fell in love. In actuality, Warsz was a 12th/13th-century nobleman who owned a village located at the site of Mariensztat neighbourhood. See also the Vršovci family which had escaped to Poland, the official city name in full is miasto stołeczne Warszawa. A native or resident of Warsaw is known as a Varsovian – in Polish warszawiak, warszawianin, warszawianka, warszawiacy, other names for Warsaw include Varsovia and Varsóvia, Varsovie, Varsavia, Warschau, װאַרשע /Varshe, Варшава /Varšava /Varshava, Varšuva, Varsó. The first fortified settlements on the site of todays Warsaw were located in Bródno, after Jazdów was raided by nearby clans and dukes, a new similar settlement was established on the site of a small fishing village called Warszowa

5.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

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Lourmarin
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Lourmarin is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte dAzur region in southeastern France. Lourmarin is located in the French region of Provence, at the foot of the Luberon Massif where a southern pass debouches over the Luberon from Apt on the side of the Luberon. The pass divides the Grand Luberon from the Petit Luberon range, the Aigues Brun brook comes out of the pass and runs just to the west of the village. Lourmarin has been settled for at least a thousand years, and was probably a Neolithic campsite before that, a fortress was first built at the site in the 12th century, and was rebuilt by Foulques dAgoult in the 15th century on the foundations of the earlier castle. In 1545 the town was burned down because its population was predominantly Waldensian protestant and its present mayor is Blaise Diagne, grandson of the like-named first Black African deputy and member of a French government. Extremely picturesque, the village is a magnet for tourists, from the village itself it is 20 minute drive down to the Durance River and then about 40 minutes on to Aix-en-Provence. Lourmarin was the birthplace of Philippe de Girard, an engineer and inventor of the spinning mill. The writers Henri Bosco and Albert Camus both lived there and are buried in the local cemetery, another famous writer, British expatriate Peter Mayle today lives in Lourmarin. One of his books, A Year in Provence, giving the chronicle of a British expatriate who settled in the village of Ménerbes, was made into a TV series and a film. Another of his books was made into the film A Good Year directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe. Lourmarin is twinned with, Żyrardów in Poland Côtes du Luberon AOC INSEE Château de Lourmarin

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Textile
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A textile or cloth is a flexible material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, hemp, Textiles are formed by weaving, knitting, crocheting, knotting, or felting. The words fabric and cloth are used in textile assembly trades as synonyms for textile, however, there are subtle differences in these terms in specialized usage. Textile refers to any material made of interlacing fibres, a fabric is a material made through weaving, knitting, spreading, crocheting, or bonding that may be used in production of further goods. Cloth may be used synonymously with fabric but is often a piece of fabric used for a specific purpose. The word textile is from Latin, from the adjective textilis, meaning woven, from textus, the word cloth derives from the Old English clað, meaning a cloth, woven or felted material to wrap around one, from Proto-Germanic kalithaz. The discovery of dyed flax fibres in a cave in the Republic of Georgia dated to 34,000 BCE suggests textile-like materials were made even in prehistoric times. The production of textiles is a craft whose speed and scale of production has been altered almost beyond recognition by industrialization, however, for the main types of textiles, plain weave, twill, or satin weave, there is little difference between the ancient and modern methods. Textiles have an assortment of uses, the most common of which are for clothing and for such as bags. In the household they are used in carpeting, upholstered furnishings, window shades, towels, coverings for tables, beds, and other flat surfaces, in the workplace they are used in industrial and scientific processes such as filtering. Textiles are used in traditional crafts such as sewing, quilting. Textiles for industrial purposes, and chosen for other than their appearance, are commonly referred to as technical textiles. Technical textiles include textile structures for applications, medical textiles, geotextiles, agrotextiles. In all these applications stringent performance requirements must be met, woven of threads coated with zinc oxide nanowires, laboratory fabric has been shown capable of self-powering nanosystems using vibrations created by everyday actions like wind or body movements. Fashion designers commonly rely on textile designs to set their fashion collections apart from others, armani, the late Gianni Versace, and Emilio Pucci can be easily recognized by their signature print driven designs. Textiles can be made from many materials and these materials come from four main sources, animal, plant, mineral, and synthetic. In the past, all textiles were made from natural fibres, including plant, animal, in the 20th century, these were supplemented by artificial fibres made from petroleum. Textiles are made in various strengths and degrees of durability, from the finest gossamer to the sturdiest canvas, microfibre refers to fibres made of strands thinner than one denier

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Mill town
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A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically a settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles. In the United Kingdom, the mill town usually refers to the 19th century textile manufacturing towns of northern England. Some former mill towns have a symbol of the industry in their town badge. Some towns may have dedicated to textile workers or have a symbol in the badge of local schools. The list below includes some towns where textiles was not the predominant industry, for example, mining was a key industry in Wigan and Leigh in Greater Manchester, and in Ossett in Yorkshire. On his tour of northern England in 1849, Scottish publisher Angus Reach said, In general, in fact, the social condition of the different town populations is almost as much alike as the material appearance of the tall chimneys under which they live. Here and there the height of the latter may differ by a few rounds of brick, but in all essential respects, the town grew out of a textile factory founded in 1833 by the sons of Feliks Lubienski, who owned the land where it was built. They brought in a specialist from France and his newly designed machines and he was French inventor, Philippe de Girard from Lourmarin. He became a director of the firm, the factory town developed during the 19th century into a significant textile mill town in Poland. In honour of Girard, Ruda Guzowska as the estate was called, was renamed Żyrardów. Most of Żyrardóws monuments are located in the area which dates from the 19th. It is widely believed that Żyrardóws textile settlement is the entire urban industrial complex from the 19th-century to be preserved in Europe. Beginning with technological information smuggled out of England by Francis Cabot Lowell, mill towns, sometimes planned, built and owned as a company town, grew in the shadow of the industries. The region became a powerhouse along rivers like the Housatonic, Quinebaug, Shetucket, Blackstone, Merrimack, Nashua, Cocheco, Saco, Androscoggin. Finally, the Great Depression acted as a catalyst that sent several struggling New England firms into bankruptcy

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Warsaw Ghetto
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The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. There were over 400,000 Jews imprisoned there, at an area of 3.4 km2, with an average of 7.2 persons per room, from the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were deported to Nazi camps and mass-killing centers. Warsaw was one of the most diverse cities in the Second Polish Republic before the war began, the majority of Polish Jews lived in the merchant districts of Muranów, Powązki, and Stara Praga, while most ethnic Germans and Russians lived in Śródmieście. Over 90% of Catholics lived further away from the commercial and vital centre of the capital. Many Jews left the city during the depression, which was more severe, in 1938 the Jewish population of the Polish capital was estimated at 270,000 people. The Siege of Warsaw continued until September 29,1939, on September 10 alone, the Luftwaffe conducted 17 bombing raids on the city, three days later,50 German planes attacked the city centre, targeting specifically Wola and Żoliborz. In total, some 30,000 people were killed, and 10 percent of the city was destroyed, along with the advancing Wehrmacht, the Einsatzgruppe EG IV and the Einsatzkommandos rolled into town. On November 7,1939, the Reichsführer-SS reorganized them into local security service, meanwhile, the German fifth column members of Selbstschutz were released immediately. The commander of EG IV, SS-Standartenführer Josef Meisinger, was appointed chief of police for the newly formed Distrikt Warschau, after the takeover of Warsaw, the German authorities began the registration of the ethnic Germans who were issued the Kennkarte separate from the rest of the locals. By June 1940 there were 2,500 Reichsdeutsche and 5,500 Volksdeutsche registered in Warsaw, in the next two years their number more than doubled, on top of over 50,000 German military personnel. By the end of the September campaign the number of Jews in and around the capital increased dramatically with thousands of refugees escaping the Polish-German front in anyway possible, in less than a year, the number of refugees in Warsaw exceeded 90,000. The Jewish Council in Warsaw was formed by the Nazis on October 7 and it was composed of 24 prominent individuals led by Adam Czerniaków, personally responsible for carrying out German orders. The persecution of Jews began soon thereafter, on October 26, the imposition of Jewish forced labour was announced, to clear the rubble from bomb damage among similar tasks. One month later, on November 20, the accounts of Polish Jews. On November 23, all Jewish establishments were ordered to display a Jewish star on doors, beginning December 1, all Jews older than ten where compelled to wear a white armband, and on December 11, they were forbidden from using public transit. On January 26,1940, the Jews were banned from holding communal prayers ostensibly due to the risk of spreading epidemics, food stamps were being introduced by the German authorities, and the liquidation of all smaller Jewish communities in the vicinity of Warsaw had intensified. The Jewish population of the capital reached 359,827 before the end of the year, on the orders of Warsaw District Governor, Ludwig Fischer, the Ghetto wall construction started on April 1,1940, circling the area of Warsaw inhabited predominantly by Jews. The work was supervised by the Warsaw Judenrat, the Nazi authorities expelled 113,000 ethnic Poles from the neighbourhood, and ordered the relocation of 138,000 Warsaw Jews from the suburbs into the city centre

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Bank Pekao
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Bank Polska Kasa Opieki Spółka Akcyjna, commonly using the shorter name Bank Pekao S. A. is a universal bank with its headquarters in Warsaw, Poland. The Italian bank UniCredit owns 59% of the company, the bank was founded in 1929 by the Ministry of Treasury as a national bank, mainly to provide financial services to Poles living abroad. In 1939 the bank had branches in every capital city of countries where Poles lived. The full name Polska Kasa Opieki may be translated literally as Polish Bank of Aid, Polska Kasa Opieki can also be translated Polish Health Fund Pekao Banks website About history page Bon PeKaO Ukrsotsbank Media related to Pekao at Wikimedia Commons

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Activism
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Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, and/or environmental reform or stasis with the desire to make improvements in society. One can also express activism through different forms of art, daily acts of protest such as not buying clothes from a certain clothing company because they exploit workers is another form of activism. One view holds that acknowledging privileges and oppressions on a daily basis ranks as a form of activism, research has begun to explore how activist groups use social media to facilitate civic engagement and collective action. The Online Etymology Dictionary records the English words activism and activist from 1920, Activists can function in roles as public officials, as in judicial activism. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. introduced the term judicial activism in a January 1946 Fortune magazine article titled The Supreme Court,1947, some activists try to persuade people to change their behavior directly, rather than to persuade governments to change or not to change laws. Other activists try to persuade people to remain the same, in an effort to counter change, the cooperative movement seeks to build new institutions which conform to cooperative principles, and generally does not lobby or protest politically. Activism is not always an action by Activists, every year more than 100 environmental activists are killed, in 2014116 environmental activists were assassinated, in 2015185 activists were killed around this planet. Since the 1990s, the Internet has been a tool used by activists for mobilization and communication of causes, specific platforms like MoveOn. org, founded in 1998, allow individuals to establish petitions and movements for social change. Protesters in Seattle in 1999 used email to organize protests against the WTO Ministerial Conference, throughout the 2000s, protesters continued to use social media platforms to generate interest. The power of Internet Activism came into a lens with the Arab Spring protests. They use different means to political persecution, such as Tor Browser. The activism industry consists of organizations and individuals engaged in activism, Activism is often done full-time, as part of an organizations core business. Many organizations in the industry are either non profit organizations or non-governmental organizations. Most activist organizations do not manufacture goods, the term activism industry has often been used to refer to outsourced fundraising operations. However, activist organizations engage in activities as well. Lobbying, or the influencing of decisions made by government, is another activist tactic, many groups, including law firms, have designated staff assigned specifically for lobbying purposes. In the United States, lobbying is regulated by the federal government, many government systems encourage public support of non-profit organizations by granting various forms of tax relief for donations to charitable organizations. Governments may attempt to deny these benefits to activists by restricting the political activity of tax-exempt organizations, randy Shaw, The Activists Handbook, A Primer for the 1990s and Beyond